ME and You
by Midnight Guard
Summary: The Master Emerald is gone and the girl accused isn't talking. When a new threat appears they need answers, but their questions are endless and their sources are limited. Now half forgotten memories and secrets are their only chance at survival.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

The sun hung low on the horizon by the time they stirred. Sonic was the first to notice they were entwined with each other.

"Aaah!" he yelled, he wrenched his arms from around Amy. In doing this he caused a chain reaction. Amy woke up when Sonic pulled away, noticed Tails' head was in her lap, and rolled away, causing Tails to wake up when his head hit the floor. He then noticed Cheese sleeping on his face and he sat up quickly, launching Cheeses into Creem's arms, who had woken up because of all the noise.

Only when the screams died out and everyone collected themselves did the questions begin to accumulate.

"What happened?" asked Sonic, shying away from the look Amy was giving him.

"I don't know, but look." Tails pointed to the Chaos Emeralds, they had been on the table in front of them, pulsing rapidly, but as they watched, the light dimmed and went out.

"The last thing I remember was talking about the emeralds, why the lights in them were pulsing…It got brighter, then…nothing…" said Sonic.

"We fell asleep," said Cream matter-of-factly.

"How long, though?" Amy asked.

"I don't know, it was pretty early, though," Tails responded.

Sonic looked up. "Yeah, but was it today?"

"If we fell asleep because of the Chaos Emeralds, what do you think happened to the Master Emerald?" Cream said, bringing them back to the topic at hand.

"Knuckles," Sonic breathed. Despite the running feud between them, they were still friends, and right now his friend needed help.

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The wind felt cool on her face as the blackness began to lift. The soft wind that ruffled her hair and tickled her skin began to quicken. The quiet that she hadn't noticed before was invaded by a shrill buzzing that wouldn't go away. She went to cover her ears, but found she couldn't move her arms. She thought her head would explode, when the noise finally stopped and the wind died down she was able to notice the headache that was forming.

She felt a presence of someone standing over her, she fought gravity to open her eyes, but she might as well have not because all she saw was a giant rainbow that seemed to be trying to talk to her.

"I said! ARE YOU OKAY?" Amy yelled.

In response, the girls' eyes fluttered, and then closed again.

"Guys," Tails called, "She can wait, Knuckles is in really bad shape."

While everyone was talking around Knuckles and Tails attempted to stabilize him for the trip back to the main land, she managed to work herself into a sitting position.

What was the blue part of the rainbow, and had now formed itself into a hedgehog, noticed her movement, and turned to look at her for the first time.

"Hey, are you alr-" he began, but stopped as he got closer getting a better look at her.

"I don't know, I feel kind of dizzy," she said honestly. She looked at the blue hedgehog closely; he had a cocky look on his face that she didn't like. "Who are you?"

"Sonic, Sonic the Hedgehog," he responded automatically. He, in turn, looked at her closely, she seemed to be…but she couldn't be…Knuckles was…His thoughts were becoming more and more incoherent as he asked, "Are you an echidna?"

"Yes, why are you still looking at me like that?"

"Because Knuckles is the last echidna, or he was…" said the pink one, walking up.

"Who's Knuckles?"

"This is Knuckles," said a small fox, who had a worried look on his face, "and we've got to get him back to Amy's, he's hurt badly."

She looked to see the one called knuckles. When she couldn't, she got shakily to her feet, and walked to the crumpled form next to what seemed to be some sort of altar, "I do not understand, there shouldn't be only one..."

Crouching next to him she saw the face of a battle-hardened echidna. The spikes jutting from his fists, still curled, ready for a fight, his furrowed brow still in place as if something still hung from an unseen balance. As she watched, he opened his eyes, looked at her, and then closed them again. His face then became smooth in his slumber.

"What's your name?" she heard from behind her, she didn't know who spoke, and it didn't matter, she didn't know these people.

"Akirakona," she replied, turning around, "who are you?"

The one who called himself Sonic stepped forward, "This is Tails, Amy, and Cream," he said, pointing to each of them in turn, "You seem to have met Knuckles," he said, gesturing to the unconscious echidna.

"I have now," she replied, getting back up. She moved to go forward, but stumbled and fell to her hands and knees,

"Why do you say he is the last?"

"Because he told us he was," Said Sonic, kneeling next to her.

"How? There are so many. We are a great people."

The others exchanged glances, "Knuckles never told us what happened, he just said he was the last, that the others died."

"Dead?" A sick feeling began in her stomach, her hand moved there.

"Oh! Are you alright?" Cream asked, trying to help.

"I'm alright," she said, not sure why she was lying to these people. She looked up at faces of worry, feeling wrong. She didn't remember these faces, but she didn't feel like she could rely on her memory anymore. Her head began to pound and blackness started at the corner of her vision and she collapsed next to Knuckles.

She thought with passing out so dramatically, she would at least have a peaceful sleep. But it seemed that this day's surprises came at no end.

Images filled her vision, going faster than she could possibly see or understand. A forest. A face. That's all she could make out of hundreds of pictures. A forest not unlike the one she saw when she had woken the first time. The face, now that one was harder. Every few hundred pictures, this one would pause before her mind's eye. Who was this person? And what did they want? He seemed farmiliar, but nothing made sense here. All she wanted now was rest.

**If this sounds farmiliar, its because you might have seen it before, we had technical difficulties that forced us to re-post it.**

**A.N. This is the first chapter of a fic. Midnight Mustang and Jorbor are doing together! Yay! If you have any questions or comments feel free to ask. We also accept constructive criticism. But if you're looking to flame us, go somewhere else, we don't have any marshmallows to cook over them. ~J&M**

**AN from MM(Midnight Mustang): Hey y'all, just wanna let you know the way this is going to work. J (Jorbor) will be doing a majority of the writing while I will being editing most of it, but occasionally I'll pop in and write a chappie or section, but I'll let you know when that happens. And of course general storyline and whatnot will come from both of us. See ya!**


	2. Chapter 2: Introductions

Rouge pushed thoughts of treachery out of her mind as she flew to Eggman's newest base to deliver information she had acquired. The amount he was offering almost made what she was doing to Knuckles okay.

"Eggie! She called into the darkness of the all-metal base, "Where are you?"

Her voice seemed to echo forever. She began to get irritated, where was that fowl-smelling crook?** (get it? Fowl..egg..?) **He owed her for what she did for him, for a price of course, nothing came without a price. She was about to give up when she noticed a door ajar in the otherwise locked hallway. Curiosity got the better of her as it often did and she went in. She wished for the rest of her life that she didn't. She would never un-see the image that lay before her.

The room was dim but for a sparking machine that illuminated the still form of Ivo Robotnik, he was lying on his stomach and there was a pool of blood around him. She couldn't see where the fatal wound was and she didn't want to.

Then realization hit, what she did…It was all for nothing. Rouge could not continue to stand there, she flew away never to return. She told the police and never looked back; Rouge immediately knew she had to get to Knuckles. She had to explain and try to get him to see she was sorry.

She tried Angle Island first, but found nothing…nothing at all. She distinctly remembered a large green gem in the center of the altar where Knuckles usually hung out, but it too was gone. She knew something was wrong at a deeper level than she knew she had, she knew for a fact that anyone who wanted that Master Emerald would have to go through Knuckles to get it, and that's why she was suddenly, and uncharacteristically worried.

Flying to the mainland she heard some interesting news, a few days ago everyone had just fallen asleep, some longer than others, the Mobians who lived closest to Sonic seemed to be asleep the longest. She wasn't sure what this meant but she knew who would probably have the answers.

Rouge set out to Amy's house because she figured if she was going to get anywhere this was as good of place as any to start with, especially since Sonic didn't have a home.

She arrived to a somber scene in what was usually lively bunch, the stress and worry was almost palpable. As she flew up she saw Sonic on the lawn with Tails, talking about what, she didn't know.

"…Don't worry Buddy, he's gonna make it," She overheard Sonic say to his friend.

"You really believe that?" asked Tails, a hopeful look dawning on his face, Sonic, seeing the look and not wanting to give his friend false hope, did not answer.

"What's going on boys?" She asked, ignoring the mood.

"What is it Rouge?" Sonic said, looking annoyed that she barged in on the middle of their conversation.

"Well now, no reason to be rude. I just wanted to know where Mr. Grumpy was hiding."

This seemed to get to them both, "Knuckles is here Rouge," Tails said.

"Can I see him? We need to have a chat."

"You can talk to him all you want, but it may be a bit one-sided," Sonic interjected.

Now Rouge was truly worried, her talks were never taken without retaliation, "What's wrong? I want ans-."

Sonic cut her off with a look she had never seen before, "I'll show you, but you have to calm down first,"

Rouge walked into the house and down a short hall, déjà vu played at the edges of her mind as, for the second time that day, she walked into a room where the door was half open on a scene she would spend the rest of her life trying to forget.

Knuckles was lying incapacitated on a bed, strapped to as many tubes and machines as she had spandex jumpsuits. He was pale and every breath he took seemed to take every ounce of energy he had, the sound made everyone wince. It was a miracle every time his chest moved up and down.

"Well," she began, trying to hide the pain it caused her to see him like this, "Sonic was right, Mr. Grumpy will take what I have to say in silence for the first time ever."

Amy, who had been helping the doctor, looked up sharply, "Rouge," she didn't need to say more. Rouge turned and walked out of the room, not sure she could have stayed any longer anyway.

When she reached the living room she did what the others seemed to be doing, she sat and waited. About ten minutes into doing so she finally noticed a girl curled up on the couch opposite her, she didn't look great but she looked better than Knuckles did. Come to think of it she did look a lot like Knuckles…she wondered, "Hey there hon, what's your name?"

The girl took a while to process this, when she finally swam through her thoughts to the surface with an answer she said, "Akirakona."

"That's a pretty name," her tone was becoming condescending, but this girl didn't seem like she was all there.

"Thank You, and you are?"

"My name is Rouge. Excuse me for asking but are you an echidna?"

Her brow furrowed, "Yes, there are many of us."

Rouge's eyebrows shot up, "Really, when did you get here?"

"I don't know. They brought me here from The Floating Island."

"Ah, you came from Angel Island, where are your parents?"

The light in her eyes dimmed as she was lost in her own world again, Rouge saw that this conversation wasn't going to go anywhere without some major prompting, "So," she said loudly enough to break the odd girl from her revere, "Why were you on Angel Island with Knuckles?"

"You mean the boy in the other room?"

Rouge nodded.

"I don't know, I woke up and he was laying there. He's from my tribe, I think, he looks familiar."

Tribe? Rouge thought, "Tribe?" Rouge said, "Are there any more of you?"

Again the girl got a faraway look in her eyes, right as Rouge was going to give up talking to her she said, "I don't remember, everything before I woke up is gone. My memories have gone, or..Are hiding.. I don't know, I see images, but they mean nothing to me. Only one makes any sense. The boy Knuckles, he's there…But I don't think I knew him… "She retreated into frustrated and uncomfortable silence. The others, who had been listening to the conversation, all had surprised looks on their faces. Apparently this is the most she had said since arriving.

Amy and the doctor came out weary eyed. After stumbling to the couch Sonic stood up without words, they seemed to have a system, but before he walked into the room, Akirakona stood up, followed by Cream, "I would like to take this shift," she said.

Sonic looked at her for a moment before nodding and walking back to the couch, "Wait," said Cream, speaking for the first time, "She can't, she's not ready, what if…"

Sonic didn't look away from Akirakona as he said, "If she wants' to take the shift, I don't see why she shouldn't be able to."

Cream sat down along with Sonic as Akirakona walked down the hall.

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In the chair next to the bed Akirakona sat. She stayed that way for hours; no one disturbed her or told her it was someone else's turn. They let her sit there and just _be_. Time to think was needed though it didn't seem to do much. As the sun went down on another day she was still sitting there. Long after Rouge left and the others went to sleep, her eyes were wide open.

Near dawn her eyes started to play tricks on her. She would see people in the corners, trees would sprout in the carpet and the furniture would move and make faces at her, "Stop! " she yelled at them, "Go away! I don't need you, you are not real, none of you." She looked at the people in the corner, when she said this their faces became sad, then angry. Their forms melted into the shadows once more.

She looked back at the boy Knuckles and saw another hallucination, he was looking at her, saying something she either couldn't hear or understand. His eyes were barely open and a rasping sound finally came to her ears, he must have been hallucinating too because he called her a name she had never heard before.

"My name is Akirakona, and yours is Knuckles, is it not?"

He didn't respond, she realized something wasn't right, a few of the machines were making funny noises at her, beeping urgently, "Help!" she screamed.

"Help! Somebody! Please, something is wrong!"

The doctor, followed by Sonic came running into the room, she was pushed out of the way and she retreated to the corner where the faces had been. She watched as they scrambled, fixing and poking. Once things had returned to normal Sonic came up to her, "You should get some sleep now."

"No, I am alright,"

He gave her a funny look but did not press; he left her alone in the room once more. She slowly made her way back to the chair by the bed. Light was just beginning to touch the hills outside the window as she began to cry.

She would have kept crying if someone hadn't gently tapped her arm and asked, "Who are you?"


End file.
